Let me ask you a question:

Right now, without looking anything up, do you know your exact revenue for last month? Your lead count? Your conversion rate? Your profit margin?

If you hesitated on any of those, you’re flying blind.

And I get it. You’re busy running the business. You don’t have time to log into five different platforms and pull reports and build spreadsheets just to figure out if you’re winning or losing.

But here’s the problem: if you don’t know your numbers, you can’t improve them.

You can’t fix what you can’t see.

Today I’m going to show you the one dashboard that solves this problem. It’s a single screen that shows you every metric that actually matters in your business, updated automatically, so you always know exactly where you stand.

__________________________________________________

The Dashboard Problem

Most business owners have one of two problems:

Problem #1: Too Many Dashboards

They’ve got a dashboard in their CRM. Another one in their payment processor. Another one in their email platform. Another one in their ad account.

To get a complete picture of their business, they have to log into six different tools, pull six different reports, and manually combine the data in a spreadsheet.

By the time they’re done, an hour has passed and they’re too exhausted to actually do anything with the information.

I had a client who spent every Monday morning doing this. Two full hours pulling data from different platforms, copying it into a spreadsheet, and trying to make sense of it all.

And by the time he was done, the data was already outdated. He was making decisions based on last week’s numbers, not today’s reality.

Problem #2: No Dashboard at All

They’re just winging it. They have a vague sense of how things are going based on how busy they feel and how much money is in their bank account.

They don’t track leads. They don’t track conversion rates. They don’t track profit margins.

And then they wonder why they can’t scale past a certain point.

I’ve seen businesses plateau at $30K a month for years because the owner had no idea what was actually working. They were just doing the same things over and over, hoping for different results.

Both problems have the same root cause: no single source of truth.

__________________________________________________

The One Dashboard Framework

Here’s what you actually need to track. Not 47 metrics. Not every vanity number your tools can spit out. Just the metrics that directly impact your ability to grow.

Section 1: Revenue Metrics

These are the numbers that tell you if you’re making money.

Why these matter: Revenue is the scoreboard. But you need to know more than just the total. You need to know where it’s coming from and how it’s trending.

If your average deal size is dropping, that’s a problem. If one revenue source is growing while others are shrinking, you need to know that. If your MRR is flat while your total revenue is growing, you’re building a less predictable business.

Section 2: Lead Metrics

These are the numbers that tell you if your pipeline is healthy.

Why these matter: Revenue is a lagging indicator. Leads are a leading indicator. If your lead count is dropping, your revenue will drop in 30-60 days.

And not all leads are created equal. You need to know which sources are generating qualified leads and which are generating tire-kickers.

Section 3: Conversion Metrics

These are the numbers that tell you if your sales process is working.

Why these matter: You can have all the leads in the world, but if you’re not converting them, you’re just wasting money.

And conversion rates tell you where the bottleneck is. If your lead-to-call rate is low, your marketing message isn’t resonating. If your call-to-close rate is low, your sales process needs work.

Section 4: Operational Metrics

These are the numbers that tell you if your business is healthy.

Why these matter: Revenue doesn’t matter if you’re not profitable. I’ve seen businesses doing $100K a month and losing money because their margins were terrible.

And the relationship between CAC and LTV tells you if your business model is sustainable. If it costs you $2,000 to acquire a client who’s only worth $1,500, you’re going out of business.

Section 5: Activity Metrics

These are the numbers that tell you if you’re doing the work.

Why these matter: Results are a function of activity. If your revenue is down, look at your activity metrics. Chances are, you’re not doing enough of the things that generate revenue.

These metrics keep you honest. You can’t lie to yourself about “working hard” when the numbers show you only made 3 sales calls last week.

That’s it. Twenty-five metrics. All on one screen.

If you know these numbers, you know everything you need to know about your business.

__________________________________________________

The $97 Dashboard That Changed Everything

Let me tell you about Mike. He runs a marketing agency doing about $35K a month. Good business. But he had no idea what was actually working.

He was spending $4,000 a month on Facebook ads. He was spending $2,000 a month on a VA to manage his LinkedIn outreach. He was spending $1,500 a month on SEO.

When I asked him which channel was generating the most revenue, he said, “Probably Facebook?”

Probably.

We built him a dashboard. Took about 90 minutes to set up. Connected his CRM, his payment processor, his ad accounts, and his email platform.

Within 24 hours, he had his answer.

Facebook ads: 12 leads, 2 clients, $7,000 in revenue. Cost per client: $2,000.

LinkedIn outreach: 31 leads, 8 clients, $28,000 in revenue. Cost per client: $250.

SEO: 6 leads, 1 client, $3,500 in revenue. Cost per client: $1,500.

LinkedIn was crushing it. Facebook was barely breaking even. SEO was a money pit.

He killed the Facebook ads and the SEO spend. Doubled down on LinkedIn. Within 60 days, he was at $52K a month with lower marketing costs.

Same effort. Same team. Just better allocation of resources.

That’s what happens when you can actually see your numbers.

__________________________________________________

How to Build Your Dashboard

You don’t need to be a data scientist to build this. You just need the right tools and a few hours.

Option 1: The Spreadsheet Dashboard (Free)

If you’re on a tight budget, you can build this in Google Sheets.

Create a sheet with five tabs (Revenue, Leads, Conversion, Operations, Activity). Manually update the numbers once a week.

It’s not automated, but it’s better than nothing. And it forces you to actually look at your numbers every week.

The downside: it’s manual. You have to remember to update it. And if you forget, the data gets stale.

But if you’re just starting out and you don’t have the budget for tools, this is a perfectly fine way to begin.

Option 2: The Notion Dashboard ($97)

This is what I recommend for most businesses. Notion is visual, flexible, and easy to update.

You can create a dashboard with all 25 metrics, add charts and graphs, and even embed reports from other tools.

I’ve actually built a pre-made Notion Dashboard Template that includes all the metrics I just listed, plus formulas to calculate things like conversion rates and profit margins automatically.

You just plug in your numbers and it does the math for you.

It’s $97 and it’ll save you hours of setup time. If you want it, reply to this email with “DASHBOARD” and I’ll send you the link.

The template includes:

Option 3: The Automated Dashboard (Advanced)

If you want the full automated experience, you can connect all your tools using Make.com or Zapier and have your dashboard update automatically.

This requires more technical setup, but once it’s done, you never have to manually enter data again.

Your CRM sends lead data to your dashboard. Your payment processor sends revenue data. Your ad platforms send cost data. Everything updates in real time.

I use Make.com for this because it’s more powerful and cheaper than Zapier for complex workflows.

The setup takes 3-4 hours if you’re doing it yourself, or you can hire someone on Upwork to build it for $300-500.

But once it’s done, you have a living, breathing dashboard that’s always up to date.

__________________________________________________

The Weekly Dashboard Review

Having a dashboard is pointless if you don’t actually look at it.

Here’s what I do every Monday morning:

10 minutes. One cup of coffee. Five questions.

Question 1: Did we hit our revenue goal last week?

If yes, what worked? Do more of that.

If no, what was missing? Fix it this week.

Don’t just look at the number. Look at the breakdown. Which revenue sources performed well? Which underperformed? What can you learn from that?

Question 2: Are we generating enough leads?

If yes, great. If no, what marketing channel needs attention?

And look at the quality, not just the quantity. 100 low-quality leads are worse than 20 high-quality leads.

Question 3: Are we converting leads at our target rate?

If yes, keep doing what you’re doing. If no, is it a lead quality problem or a sales process problem?

This is where most businesses find their biggest opportunities. A 5% improvement in conversion rate can double your revenue without spending another dollar on marketing.

Question 4: Are we profitable?

If yes, how can we increase margin? If no, what expenses can we cut or what prices can we raise?

Profit is the only number that actually matters. You can have all the revenue in the world, but if you’re not profitable, you don’t have a business.

Question 5: Are we doing enough activity?

If yes, you’re putting in the work. If no, what’s blocking you from executing?

This is the accountability question. You can’t blame the market or the economy or bad luck if you’re not doing the work.

Ten minutes. Every Monday. That’s all it takes to stay on top of your business.

__________________________________________________

The Metrics That Don’t Matter

Before we wrap up, let’s talk about what NOT to track.

Vanity Metrics:

These numbers feel good, but they don’t pay the bills.

I’ve seen businesses with 50,000 Instagram followers making $5K a month. And I’ve seen businesses with 500 followers making $50K a month.

The difference? One is focused on vanity metrics. The other is focused on revenue metrics.

Focus on the metrics that directly connect to revenue. Everything else is noise.

__________________________________________________

The ROI of Knowing Your Numbers

Let’s do some math.

If you’re currently spending $5,000 a month on marketing and you have no idea which channels are working, you’re probably wasting at least $2,000 of that.

If you build a dashboard and reallocate that $2,000 to channels that actually convert, you’ll generate more leads and more revenue without spending an extra dollar.

That’s $24,000 a year in recovered marketing spend.

And that doesn’t even count the revenue you’ll generate from improving your conversion rates, raising your prices, or cutting unprofitable services.

Knowing your numbers isn’t just good practice. It’s the difference between guessing and growing.

__________________________________________________

Your Action Plan for This Week

Here’s what to do:

Today: Decide which dashboard option you’re going with (spreadsheet, Notion, or automated).

Tomorrow: Set up your dashboard with the 25 metrics I listed above.

This Week: Populate it with your current numbers. Even if you have to estimate some of them, get something on the page.

Next Monday: Do your first weekly dashboard review. Answer the five questions.

By the end of January, you’ll have a system that keeps you informed and focused on what actually matters.

__________________________________________________

What’s Coming Next Week

We’re going deep on email sequences. I’m going to show you the exact 5-email sequence that turns cold leads into booked calls, with open rates above 40% and response rates above 15%.

It’s the sequence I use in my own business and the one I’ve built for dozens of clients.

See you Tuesday.

Dan

__________________________________________________

P.S. If you want the Notion Dashboard Template with all 25 metrics pre-built and ready to use, reply with “DASHBOARD” and I’ll send you the link. It’s $97 and it’ll save you hours of setup time.